Mexico's Xito invests $4 million to add PET sheet capacity

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MEXICO CITY (Aug. 23, 1:30 p.m. ET) — Extruder and thermoformer Xito SA de CV has invested $4 million in a new PET sheet extrusion line which will almost double its current production capacity of 19 million pounds a year.

According to owner and chief executive Norman Wright, Xito will increase its sheet production capacity by 17 million pounds a year with the new line, acquired from a European supplier whose name Wright preferred to keep to himself and started up this month.

Since launching the company in the municipality of Atizapan de Zaragoza, near Mexico City, in 1990, Wright has invested $9 million in sheet machinery, he told Plastics News by email.

“This next semester we expect a [business] growth of 45 percent based on our new sheet line,” he added. “We feel that, with our proven quality and new capacity, our exports to the U.S. will gain significantly.”

Eighty-five percent of Xito’s production is for the Mexican market, 10 percent is exported to the United States and 5 percent to Central America.

Xito employs 150 and produces sheet from either recycled or virgin PET with or without a sealable PE/EVOH barrier.

It can make large master rolls as well as smaller rolls for vacuum formers or thermoformers that need specific sizes. Gauges run from 8-40 mils.

Xito also thermoforms PET sheet into cake domes and food containers. The company uses sheet with an inner layer of recycled PET in that application, Wright said.

Most of the company’s sheet is made from hot-washed PET flake, supplied by sister company Petall SA de CV, which is located nearby.

Petall is one of several other companies owned by Wright. The others are disposable plastic cutlery maker Xactico SA de CV and distributor Wow Plastics Inc, whose warehouses include one in Rosenberg, just south of Houston.

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